Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

50 reviews

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book left me cold and I have no idea why. It’s well written and it has everything I want: magic, adventure, a super charming main character, and a little bit of romance thrown in for good measure.

I think what threw me off is I found it hard to relate to the main character. She’s the type who expects things to go wrong, so she has a tendency to self-sabotage. Although I was able to understand why she was doing what she was doing, it’s so far from who I am that I found it hard to relate to her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse

raptorq's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Suicide, Blood, and Vomit

leighmillonig's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It took me a chapter or two to get into the main character's voice, but once I did I absolutely loved it and laughed out loud constantly. While the tone is overall light-hearted, it does explore darker themes like death, grief, abandonment, and addiction with nuance and respect. A hilarious, cozy, feel-good fantasy with a fun magic system and world-building that's a standalone! (But I've just learned that there is actually a companion book set in the same world, which I will be reading soon...) 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Death, and Abandonment

handles these topics (abandonment, addiction) with nuance and respect and humanity.

littlelizzieborden's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide

rachtmh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wickedly funny and very much a page turner. I barely wanted to put this book down! 
The characters are brilliant, the plot is explosive, the representation is great, and the ending is pleasing. 

You do need to be able to pay attention whilst reading to make the most of the ‘accent’ and language used in the writing/conversation. 

I was pleased how the book turned out for most of the characters and didn’t feel like there were any loop holes or obvious loose threads. 

Overall very funny and enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Representation: Infertility, LGBTQIA+, mental and physical illness.

basil_touche's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I'll just say right off the bat that I found this book extremely disappointing. 

At first I was really into the victorian style of writing and a story involving magical female bodyguards with a sapphic romance on the side. But then the book dropped the bodyguarding aspect less than 100 pages into it and instead

focuses on the characters starting a drug ring to catch a murderer.

The blurb for this focused solely on the bodyguarding aspect and I wouldn't minded the change had it actually turned out to be anything interesting, but it just wasn't. I was expecting some deep governmental conspiracy that links in with the classism that the book features (I will give the book that it handles that well), not a narrative that doesn't really deliver anything.

Around five chapters focused on just the romance and

the building of the drug producing laboratory, it was a repetitive cycle of working on in the lab, luncheon, flirting and resting.

It was just so dragged out and unnecessary. All this meant that the ending was extremely rushed and we aren't even given a motive for the antagonist. All the characters are rather one dimensional as well, that by the end of it I didn't care about any of them or if the romance between the protagonist and the rich half-troll clanner worked out in the end.

It's a real shame as I love the idea of a fantasy book set in a victorian setting with the period appropriate writing style but this book just did not fullfill anything for me. Waste of time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content and Suicide

fayeferre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder

laurel616's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

While it took me a moment to get into the writing/slang, after I did I really enjoyed it.  There is a very creative magical system in play, but it often left me quite confused as to what people's actual powers were.  Overall an enjoyable read that keep pretty good pacing throughout the entire story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Gore

kittenconfidential's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, and Murder